We were lucky to catch up with Kate & DJ Hoessle recently and have shared our conversation below.

Kate & DJ , appreciate you joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

Most days it feels like our whole life is a risk. 5 years ago we traded the typical American Dream for a life of adventure, honestly the day we sold our house was the scariest day of our lives; we were 100% certain we had just thrown away our future on a pipe dream. 5 years, 30 countries, 35 US States and a visit to the North Pole later, we couldn’t have been more wrong; we turned “someday” into our everyday. There are times we’ve wished we could go back and sit down on the floor of that cold empty house and talk with the past versions of ourselves who were so unsure we’d tell them about, hiking glaciers, dancing late into the night to in the Sahara Desert to beat of a Berber drum, cruising through the Panama Canal, or surfing down the coast of the Baja Peninsula. But realistically, given the chance we wouldn’t, because knowing what we know now, being brave enough to take the risk not knowing how it would all turn out was the first step in trusting ourselves to build the life of our dreams. There’s no courage with the absence of fear, and taking a risk and jumping into the unknown made us who we are today.

We’ve all heard the phrase, “No risk, no reward”, in some ways that’s true, but the misconception often comes that the reward is the end product. The real reward of risk is the journey it sends you on. Looking your fears, your worries, your trepidations in the eye, and saying, “You don’t own me”; once you do that, amazing things begin to happen.

Kate & DJ , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

As creatives, and travelers, the question, “Who are we” is a question we constantly ask ourselves; as two people whose lives are in a constant state of flux, that same evolution is continuously represented in our work. 5 years ago, when we turned our backs on a conventional lifestyle and set out to travel the world, we had no idea that we’d not only be building a new life but also a new community of incredible people.

The first time we ever clicked, “publish” on a blog, social media post, or YouTube video isn’t really seared into our memories the way it seems to be for a lot of people who set out to brand themselves as travel bloggers, vloggers, etc. Our, “brand” (for lack of a better word) was born out of a need to keep concerned friends and family aware that we were still alive, happy and to share our adventures with them- then something changed. Messages started to trickle in from strangers we had never met. Strangers with questions, about the places we’d been and the adventures we’d had, comments about how we were living their dream lives. We suddenly realized that the journey we were could be bigger than just us, it could help others. Unwittingly we had built a community and now had a platform to help people chase their down their own dreams and build the lives they wanted for themselves, and that’s what we’ve been doing ever since.

The irony of it all is, nine times out of ten when we receive a comment, social media message, or even the occasional friendly handwritten note, these messages are always signed off with one simple word, “thanks” but the truth is, it’s us who should be saying thanks. Call it a “travel website”, call it a “blog”, call it a YouTube Channel, call it whatever you like. We just call it a community, because we receive so much more than we give, and for that we are and will always be forever grateful.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

We live by the saying, “sometimes you win, and sometimes you learn”, our truth is we learn a lot. Some of our greatest lessons we’ve learned is that sometimes we have to, unlearn. The hard truth is, if learning is a slow slog, unlearning something is more like climbing a mountain with life throwing massive boulders at you along the way.

Undoubtedly, the biggest thing we’ve had to unlearn and let go of is a need for perfection. We always want to put the best of ourselves into everything we do, but there’s a fine line between giving something your all and never feeling like your all is enough. Over the years we’ve discovered that in seeking perfection we’ve often stood in our own way.

Perfection is disingenuous. We’ve been told countless times that our life is inspiring, but we as we share our journey we want to share it with honesty and transparency. Sometimes things don’t go right; flights get cancelled, we make mistakes, budgets run low and travel burn out happens, the list is endless. Helping others is at the heart of why we do what we do, and if we only focus on the good parts, we unintentionally create an expectation of perfection, which inevitably will lead to disappointment. If we aren’t fulfilling our, “why” then what purpose does what we’re doing serve in the first place?

It was a hard lesson to learn, or unlearn as it was, but once we adapted to showing the full picture of our lives; the good, the bad, the funny, the terrifying and sometimes the downright absurd, our community responded and embraced us in an even greater way than they had before.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Pivot!! For a lot of us 90’s kids that one little word probably instantly conjures up images of an episode from Friends involving moving an unwieldy couch up a staircase full of sharp corners; real talk? That scene is a pretty solid metaphor for our lives. Time and time again we are having to re-invent ourselves and our “brand”.

If you’re here reading this then it’s more than likely you’ve at some time in your life typed, “how to grow on social media” into a Google search, we certainly have. The common thread amongst all those pages is that most “experts” will tell you, is the path to success is a straight line. Pick a subject, focus on it, create, repeat, create repeat, keep it streamline, and for many, many people this approach seems to work, but we have found as we grow, as people, and creatives, so does our audience. We’ve traveled the US by RV, lived on a sailboat, called a bike and tent a home for weeks on end and lived out of suitcases in countries around the world. We, pivot” a lot. We define ourselves as adventure travelers, but what is an adventure exactly? Nothing more than a bold and risky foray into the unknown, it’s really nothing more than an exciting pivot.      

Contact Info:

• Website: www.venturewild.net
• Instagram: @venture_wild
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/venturewild